Widows Bite Once
Natasha Romanoff was having a good morning.
Wanda opened her eyes just before sunrise and, though she was understandably sore and pissed off, was over the first big hurdle in her recovery.
But that wasn’t the reason for the small smile on Nat’s face as she stared at her tablet, spoon scooping cereal into her mouth as she read. You were making it easier for her than she’d thought.
“Whoever wrote this is definitely not a scientist,” Tony proclaimed, face buried in his own tablet as he demolished a waffle.
“Which honestly makes me more worried,” Steve piped in, reading over Nat’s shoulder. “Who knows under what kind of conditions this stuff was created.”
“I know exactly who wrote this,” Nat said to the befuddlement of the rest of her teammates. “Think about it. We only recovered three vials of serum from the lab. That’s nothing for a facility that size.”
“But we searched the place from top to bottom,” Steve argued.
“We did,” Nat continued. “But what if it was removed before our search? What if, when Y/F/N, Y/L/N escaped, she managed to take a few vials with her?”
“And now she’s selling it? Seems like a risky plan so soon after our bust,” chimed in Bruce, nursing a coffee in the corner.
“Could help her drive up the price if news of our raid spread. Make it seem like the product she’s hawking is more legitimate than it actually is,” suggested Clint, who leaned on the island, finishing off an apple.
Nat shrugged. “I think she’s just desperate. Think about it. She just got out of prison and now her entire support network’s gone. She’s out of options.”
“Or...” Steve said. “It’s a trap. A way of luring us away from the compound so she can come in and rescue Kilroy.”
Nat sighed and faced Steve. “I think you’re wrong. I think she wishes we killed him back at the lab.”
Steve’s face hardened. “Don’t be so sure. Sometimes family’s family, no matter how twisted.”
Nat could tell there was no convincing him, so she switched to another tactic: appeasement. “How about Clint and I pose as potential buyers and offer to meet while everyone else stays here in case she shows up?”
Steve stared at Nat’s face. A few small cuts still littered her temple from where you’d slammed her into the glass case. But Nat jumped in before Steve could say anything.
“She caught me off guard. But now that I know who I’m up against, I know I can take her if I have to.” Nat left off the part where she was hoping you’d be open to reason, that she could talk you out of fighting in favor of... well, she wasn’t exactly sure what you’d be open to.
Steve glanced at Clint, who nodded. He’d have Nat’s back. Steve turned his gaze back to Nat.
“Fine. But if you can’t make contact by this time tomorrow, I want you back here.”
“Alright,” Nat nodded before turning to Tony. “Tony, if I want to seem like a legitimate buyer, I’ll have to make a down payment before she’ll agree to a meeting.”
“How much?”
“Five-hundred thousand should be convincing.”
Tony didn’t even look up as he made the transfer.
“Five-hundred thousand dollars.” The numbers didn’t even look real on the screen. After posting your dark web ad, you’d dug around the family’s email and found their flight information, confirming you had a few more days before they returned home.
It didn’t matter, however. You’d already packed a backpack and found some workable hiking boots in your size. Not the best for running, but they’d do, especially for where you were going.
Kilroy always waxed poetic about the perfect meeting location, and you thought you’d outdone him, opting for a lakeside rendezvous deep in a state park. Not only was it difficult to get to, but the large lake provided a decent amount of cover and, if shit hit the fan, the serum made you an excellent swimmer. So, with one last look around the cozy house, you headed out again, making sure the vials were strapped safely to your chest.
“Barton, wake up.” Natasha poked Clint when they were fifteen minutes out. He stretched and looked down at the endless canopy of trees. “We’re going to have to hike in,” Natasha told him, “so she doesn’t know it’s us.”
Clint grumbled as he shifted in his seat. “Why’d ya bring me? Why not Cap or Bruce? I wasn’t even on the original mission.”
Nat looked over at Clint. “I don’t want this to turn into a fight if I can help it. If I brought anyone else on the team, that would be a guarantee.”
“What are you talking about? This chick’s dangerous, right? She threw you across the room. She shot Wanda! How is there any way this isn’t ending in a fight?”
Natasha focused on the controls more than she needed to as they began their decent. “I don’t know, Clint. But I saw something. In her face. Yes, she did all those things. But she felt bad about it.”
“Oh,” Clint said, realization dawning on his face. “This is a rescue mission, isn’t it? You think she wants to be rescued?”
“I’m not sure,” Natasha said, uncertainty creeping into her voice. And she meant it.
You perched high in a tree, keeping a careful watch over the meeting spot. Though the initial deposit came through, you were still hesitant; there were no good people, you assumed, trolling the dark web for super solider serum. Whoever was coming, no matter how true their intentions, was likely coming in hot and with backup.
Still, you were surprised when you caught your first sight of two people walking down one of several trails towards the lake. They blended in well and seemed to be deploying some sort of stealth, dodging out of your line of sight only to pop back in meters closer.
You scrambled down from your perch, with every intention of cutting them off. But the moment you jumped, you felt a searing pain course through your body, and you landed hard on your back, staring up at the trees. Before you stopped writhing, two faces appeared above you. One was a middle-aged man, an arrow pointed at your face. The other was none other than Natasha Romanoff.
“Move and I’ll hit you again only worse.” The Avenger’s former assassin pointed her arm straight at you and you could only imagine what had struck you came from the band wrapped around her wrist.
This was bad, very bad. You weighed your options in your mind, slowed down by the ringing in your ears from the shock of the fall. You’d already faced Natasha once and didn’t want to do it again. The bruise she gave you was still purple, and you knew it was on full display. Still, maybe you could trip up her friend long enough to make a break for it?
You slowly raised your hands in surrender. “Okay, I’m not moving.” Just as you’d hoped, her friend made the mistake of moving closer, placing his body right above your legs. You kicked swiftly, straight into his stomach, using the momentum to launch yourself to your feet. You didn’t even have time to see if he was okay before you started sprinting only to...
“Fuck!” You face planted straight into the ground, barely missing impaling yourself on a tree branch. Before you could catch your breath, Natasha was on top of you, restraining your hands with specially made cuffs.
“I told you not to move,” she breathed into your ear as she hauled you to your feet. She looked back down the trail. “Barton, you okay?”
Her friend gave her a weak thumbs up as he slowly stumbled to you. You strained at the cuffs, but Natasha just chuckled. “Vibranium,” she said, like that meant anything to you. “Next time you try to make a great escape, watch out for trip wires.”